66 Items Tagged

Planets

A mockup of the ExoMars rover rolls off its landing platform at the Rover Operational Control Centre near Turin, Italy. The facility is designed to simulate what conditions will be like on Mars when the actual rover, named Rosalind Franklin, arrives in 2022.

Europe's New Mars Yard Is Like a Playground for Planetary Engineers

Thanks, in part, to 150 tons of soil belched out by Mount Vesuvius nearly 2,000 years ago.

A. J. Oliveira July 8, 2020

Santa Fe, New Mexico

Santa Fe Botanical Garden

This high desert botanical garden is a unique display of New Mexico’s ecology and culture.

Göttingen, Germany

Planetenweg Göttingen

A 1:2 billion-scale solar system leads visitors into this German university town.

There's plenty to see, even when you're not on a perfectly dark mountain.

How to Find the Best Stuff in the Night Sky From Absolutely Anywhere

A beginner's guide to admiring stars, planets, and satellites—no mountaintop or fancy gear required.

Jessica Leigh Hester May 28, 2024

This panorama, captured in January 2017, looks out at higher reaches of Mount Sharp.

space exploration

Why Does This Picture From Mars Look Like a Riverbed on Earth?

A familiar sight, millions of miles away.

Jessica Leigh Hester March 29, 2019

What Does This Alien Minor Planet Look Like?

A peanut? Or maybe a bowling pin?

Jessica Leigh Hester January 3, 2019

Constellations were printed on the inside of the snug case.

objects of intrigue

The Tiny Globe That Puts the World and Heavens in Your Palm

Elizabeth Cushee’s elegant 1745 orb was boundary-pushing at the time.

Jessica Leigh Hester December 3, 2018

Munich, Germany

Fraunhofer Refractor at the Deutsches Museum

The telescope that discovered Neptune.

Marconi was considered one of the founding fathers of radio—and was bullish about messages from Mars.

Everybody Shut Up! We're Listening to Mars

When the red planet comes close to Earth, some people have tried to tune in to see if it has anything to say.

Jessica Leigh Hester August 3, 2018

The Cerro-Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile is "magnificently desolate," according to astronomer Scott Sheppard.

How a Desert Mountain Telescope Revealed Jupiter's Odd New Moon

Meet Valetudo, a moon that doesn't just go with the flow.

Jessica Leigh Hester July 17, 2018

Saturn and Enceladus, its sixth-largest moon, are linked by invisible plasma waves, generated in part by plumes of water vapor depicted in this still from a NASA animation.

Listen to the Mournful Wails of Planets and Moons

A saturnine soundtrack.

Jessica Leigh Hester July 10, 2018

Hawaii's Mauna Loa (left) is often treated as a proving ground for missions to Mars (right).

How Comparisons Help Us Understand the Universe

Jessica Leigh Hester July 3, 2018

The Gnome Village

Carson, California

Gnome Village

Gnomes have their very own bonsai-landscaped settlement on a university campus.

The Cassini spacecraft captured this nearly edge-on view of Saturn's rings and the moons Mimas, Janus, and Tethys.

How to Appreciate Saturn as Abstract Art

In an image captured by Cassini, the gas giant's rings look like razor-thin blades.

Jessica Leigh Hester May 14, 2018

This family portrait of Jupiter and Io, one of its moons, is a montage of images taken by the New Horizons spacecraft in 2007.

How to See Jupiter in All Its Glory

Throughout May, the gas giant will be close to Earth and visible all night long.

Jessica Leigh Hester May 8, 2018

How many craters and dark spots can you name?

Who Keeps Track of All the Craters on the Moon?

For generations, women have been critical to bringing order to the chaos of the solar system.

Jessica Leigh Hester April 25, 2018

The Milky Way as observed from the Chilean desert.

space exploration

Found: First Evidence of Planets Outside the Milky Way

3.8 billion light-years is really, really far away.

Vittoria Traverso February 5, 2018

The Kepler-90 system now ties with our solar system in number of planets.

Found: An Eighth Planet Orbiting a Far-Flung Star

The discovery of Kepler-90i was made possible with artificial intelligence.

Vittoria Traverso December 15, 2017